Talk about understatements. When $8.3 billion Ashland Inc. last week announced it had settled a class action lawsuit with the Central Laborers’ Pension Fund, it stated in a press release that it agreed to certain “modifications” of its corporate governance policies.
Those slight modifications amount to the most radical governance changes a Fortune 500 company has ever agreed to; they’re also among the most aggressive series of compromises agreed to by any company in the U.S.
